Science Daily: People With Low Self-Esteem Show More Signs of Prejudice

ScienceDaily — When people are feeling bad about themselves, they’re more likely to show bias against people who are different. A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, examines how that works.

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Assuming this result is correct (I think the implicit association test is a dubious method), and taking into account Robert Putnam’s research indicating that ethnic diversity makes people unhappy, the conclusion is that increased diversity is a vicious circle that will make people more and more unhappy, hateful and biased. No wonder people vote with their feet (white flight).

–The conclusion is that increased diversity is a vicious circle that will make people more and more unhappy, hateful and biased. No wonder people vote with their feet (white flight).

Some may feel this way but its a minority. If we felt that way there would never be great cities like New York, Buenos Aires, London and Madrid. Maybe in Joberg during Apartheid white people felt that way. If you feel that cultural diversity is “an illness” then that is Putnam’s opinion and “problem.” I don’t waste me time worrying about those types of things.

–Enrique, in your experiment opinion, how do you think is the level of self-esteem among asylum-seekers?

Do you want to hear what they used to say in Argentina during the dirty war? Those who were for the military regime asked why didn’t Amnesty International ever complain about human rights abuses in the Soviet Union. That shows you how low ignorance can stoop.

I have said countless of times that when you live in a culturally diverse society (this does not only mean different ethnicities) mutual acceptance and respect are paramount. I have said it before: racism is a problem in every society.

Some may feel this way but its a minority. If we felt that way there would never be great cities like New York, Buenos Aires, London and Madrid.

Great cities with diverse populations are always characterized by ethnic segregation. It’s a universal human tendency.

If you feel that cultural diversity is “an illness” then that is Putnam’s opinion and “problem.” I don’t waste me time worrying about those types of things.

It’s not Putnam’s opinion, but the result of his extensive empirical research on this subject. You may disregard research findings that challenge your preconceptions, but it means that you will never gain a proper understanding of what ethnic diversity does to a society.

Enrique, you are very right about this. However there is one difference. Economical and racial segregation are enforced from the majority upon the minority while cultural segregation, as we see in Europe today, is enforced in the other way around.

It’s funny you think that way. The majority usually pushes around the minority. We have minorities like the Israeli lobby in the United States that are pretty power and shape to a great extent US foreign policy int he Mideast. These are important things to keep in mind: mutual acceptance, respect and equal opportunities. The idea of acceptance means that you let people be who they want to be in society. Nothing strange about that considering that we live in a Western and democratic society.

I think pre-judging is what having a brain is all about and articles like this are simply part of the acadamy’s naive push to curry favor with the well-moneyed insulated elite. Speaking as one who lived in a minority neighborhood for over twenty years, I pre-judged all the time, if you did not quickly judge by appearance alone you were dead meat on the street.

Hi Tom Barnes, welcome to Migrant Tales. So do you think that a scientific article that looks at self-esteem and prejudice is a “plot” by the elite? I totally disagee with you. Do you think prejudice is a normal state?